$336.4 Million Powerball Jackpot Winner

This week 81 year old Louise White from Newport was named as last month’s $336.4 million Powerball jackpot winner. At a press conference at the state lottery headquarters in Cranston the lucky lady revealed she had been sleeping with the ticket hidden inside her bible since the draw on February 11th. Mrs White says she feels blessed, she is very happy and proud and the win will change her family’s life forever.

The winning ticket was purchased at a Stop & Shop supermarket in Newport when Mrs White stopped to pick up a Rainbow Sherbert for her son. The Powerball ticket was one of three random numbers purchased for $9 and she wrote down all of the numbers on a piece of paper when they were read out on the television during the draw but missed a few so did not realise she had won. Later that evening she checked the numbers again and had to wake her family to double check, they even checked online and rebooted the computer in case the numbers had changed. When they confirmed they were all correct they jumped up and down, screamed and hugged before hiding the ticket and going out for breakfast.

Mrs Whites win is the sixth largest US prize ever and her attorney confirmed it was being claimed in the name of the Rainbow Sherbert Trust. Louise White is taking a lump sum payment of $210 million but via her lawyers she says she has no idea how it will be spent, she simply stated “charity begins at home.” Sadly the supermarket will not receive anything for selling the winning ticket because Powerball retailers in Rhode Island get eight cents on the dollar for every ticket sold.